Head lamp



June 16, 1936. e. A. PEPLE, JR

HEAD LAMP Filed July 14, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ZWW??? I INVENTOR Gusizze A.Pe o/e HIS A'ITORNEYS June 16, 1936- ca. A. PEPLE, JR 3 2 HEAD LAMPFiled July 14, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 son-1 IOOFt I50 FF I50 Ft ISOFt|50Ft l50 I50 Ft Patented June 16, 1936 stares w en P AT E Thisinvention relates to head-lamps, particularly those for automobiles, andits chief object is to provide a head-lamp that will entirely obviateall effect of glare on oncoming drivers while nonetheless providing animproved illumination of the roadway. More particularly, it is an objectof the invention to provide a headlamp which will not exhibit any strongdirect light at all, except directly and solely on the roadway, and willinstead appear to oncoming drivers to be of merely the same intensity asthe rest of the car, whether looked at from a point quite a distanceaway, or up to the very time of passing the car bearing it.

A particular object of the invention is to provide head-lampimprovements of this sort which may be easily, and inexpensively eitherattached by the purchaser to a standard head-lamp; or built in it at thefactory, with few, if any, changes in the essential structure ofhead-lamps, and at no appreciable advance in their cost.

A few forms of the invention are shown by way of example in theaccompanying drawings, but the invention is limited in its embodimentsonly by the scope of the subjoined claims. In these drawings,

Fig. l is a front elevation of the entire headlamp;

Fig. 2 is a vertical central section;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the lens-member;

Fig. 4 is a rear-elevation of said member;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical section of the lens along line 5-5 ofFig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged horizontal section of the lens along line 6-6 ofFig. 4, and

Fig. 7 is a vertical central section of a modified forms of lens.

In the ordinary head-lamp, when the light rays pass out through the lensenough rays are diffused by. interception, by the dust and dirtparticles on the lens, and by flaws and spots in the glass itself, torender the whole face of the lamp a glaring and glowing spot, somewhatlike a white-hot 'ball, these stray rays from the lens-face appearing tooncoming drivers to be independent of the direct rays illuminating theroadway or entering the eye directly from the incandescent light-sourcein the head-lamp. This spot offers such a strong contrast to therelatively weak illumination thrown purposely onto the roadway, as tooften cause a totally blinding effect, temporarily, on an oncomingdriver. In all cases, it causes the pupils to involuntarily contract tosuch an extent that they do not receive enough rays to perceive otherobjects, or, the driver cannot see the road", with obvious consequences.

I entirely cut off all these diffusedor stray rays, and the preferredmeans for cutting ofi or otherwise preventing these stray and other raysfrom reaching the eyes of oncoming drivers, comprise a conventional bodyI, a conventional incandescent light-source 2, a standard parabolicreflector 3, and a rim 4, all made and assembled as in standardpractice; and, in addition, a special lens 5, and a special frame 6.

The lens 5 can be either built. in with the rest of the head-lamp, orbought separately and quickly and easily put in place of an ordinarylens already in a head-lamp, and is held to the body by the standard rim4. The frame 6 can also be either built in the head-lamp or attached toan ordinary head-lamp, and carries a set of blackened louvresl. Thelouvres are fixed in position and so spaced and sloped that an oncomingdriver cannot see any portion of the face of the lens proper. In oneembodiment, by way of example, a person with his eyes approximately fivefeet above the level ground (the usual height of a seated driver's eyes)and approximately one hundred fifty 'feet away, will have his line ofvision coincide with the lower front edges of one louvre and the upperrear edges of the next lower louvre, so that all diffusion rays from theface of the luminous spot, which is the lens, will be entirely out off,and the oncoming driver thus cannot see the face of the lens. In theembodiment illustrated, all the louvres 1, except the lowermost four,are made to slope parallel to each other at 615 below horizontal, inorder to effectuate this blanking-out; and to co-act with certainfeatures of the lens itself, hereinafter described. The four lowermostvanes, however, are sloped at 90',.1130', 1335, and 1630, for a purposeto be later made manifest.

The lens itself is so shapes, and combined with prisms so shaped, thatabout half of the rays from its front face will be positively directedsharply downwardly below horizontal towards the road, focusingrelatively closely, and the other half downwardly focusing at varyinggreater distances away, all passing out without striking any louvre. Tothis end, the front face of the lens is provided withhorizontally-running prisms shaped, spaced; and grouped as shown; thatis, with a plurality of prisms 9 of the shape of a trapezium incross-section, the two outer faces in each trapezium having slopesdiffering from each other, and successive trapeziums having diiferentcross-sectional angles.

In the preferred embodiment, and using the conventional composition ofglass for the lens, the upper outer faces of the trapezoids lie at 12from the vertical down to the third to last trapezium, and throw thelight rays onto the road relatively close to the car, say about 10-30feet away according to the well-known law of optics according to the lawof refraction of light; lie

at 320 for the next three prisms and refract to 100 feet for a similarreason; and lie at 218 for the remaining trapeziums and refract to 150feet. However, other angles, thicknesses, and arrangements of the prismsmay be used provided they cause light passing'from the parabolicreflector in parallel rays to be positively directed and controlled bythe prisms, some to strike the ground at points no more than 150 feetaway, and usually exactly at the distance of 150 feet; that passing outother faces, at or about 100 feet; and that passing out still otherfaces, at 50 feet, or thereabouts, or so that at least half therayscoming from the parabola will be distributed well over the roadway from150 feet away to say 50 feet ahead of the'car, and the other half withinsay 25-30 feet of the car, instead of all rays being indiscriminatelyscattered up in the air as well as over the roadway. The direct raysfrom the filament can be used, yet cut off from direct vision, by, ifdesired, making the bulb spherical, and silvering the front hemispherethereof.

The louvres are all set at the same angle, preferably 615, except thelower four louvres, which are set at varying angles, as shown, to coactwith the varying lower four prisms on the lens. Light rays thatenter thelens horizontally will be refracted by the prism faces that slope 120 tosuch an angle as to emanate exactly parallel to louvres having the slopeof 615; by faces that slope 1650, parallel to louvres sloping 90; byfaces sloping 2050, parallel to louvres sloping 1130; and by facessloping 2345, parallel to louvres sloping 1335. The lowermost portion ofthe lens is adapted to cast light closer to the car than the uppermost,and the louvres are correspondingly located and sloped so that theystill do not intercept any of i these directed rays, but allow some topass out at 50 ft. and others to strike the road at 25 ft. or less, eventhough the lowermost prisms are thicker and larger and thus refract. thelight more and emit more light.

The back face of the lens is provided with a plurality of substantiallyvertically extending flutes, or semi-cylinders 90, occupyingapproximately three-fourths of its area, the remaining portion beingprovided with vertically extending triangular prisms 9|, having thediffering slopes of faces shown, to refract entering rays to differentstriking-positions at the side of .the roadway. The flutes arepreferably all of the same size and contour, and refract raysright andleft, which rays illumine the lateral environs of the car, so that thedriver may keep out the ditches, ruts, etc. The prisms 9| have theirbroadest faces lying at successively increasing angles from the edge ofthe lens toward the center of the lens in order to appropriatelyilluminate the right or ditch side of the road at different lengthsahead of the car, so that the driver can observe turnings-ofl in theroad.

In the modification shown in Fig. '7, the frontface of the lens isprovided with prisms like a trapezium and all having the slope of 12 onthe upper outer face, except the last three, in order to focus one-halfthe light at about 30 feet-25 feet for all except the last three, and atless than 25 feet away from the car for the last three, and arranged insuccessive groups of three as to the slope of the lower outer face, theseries being 218, 320, and 640, in order to distribute the rest of thelight at the 150, and 50 feet zones, respectively.

In cars equipped with the present lamp, the user is never required todim his lights, as they create no glare at all on the eyes of oncomingdrivers; and as they do not in any way reach the eyes of an oncomingdriver, they reduce the chances of accident at least by half, sincethough the present user may well be blinded by the lights of anoncoming'car not equipped with the present invention, the said userinstinctively slowdown and hugs his side of the road, and the oncomingdriver,not having any light at all in his eyes, has a clear vision andwill instinctively keep clear of a car which he can plainly see due tothe no-glare. feature of the present head-lamps.

The actual manufacture of the lamp, where it varies at all from theconventional, departs so little from standard methods that it is simpleand cheap; and the car-owner may, if desired,

himself apply the present improvements to a standard lamp at a costconsiderably less than that of buying a new pair of standard headlamps.The construction of the louvre and lens is exceedingly simple, and easyaccess may be had to the interior of the lampfor renewals and cleaning.It can be made either in theconfig uration and appearance shown, oralong modernistic or other artistic designs, without in the slightestaffecting the improved functions and advantages described hereinabove.

I claim:

1. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged upon one face thereof, said prisms having broader upperouter surfaces than their lower outer surfaces, and a screening. devicearranged in front of said lens, said screening device comprising aplurality of inclined vanes spaced from each other to the height oftheir adjacent prisms of said lens.

2. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged upon one face thereof, said prisms having broader upperouter surfaces than their lower outer surfaces, and a screening devicearranged in front of said lens, said screening device comprising aplurality of inclined vanes spaced from each other to the height oftheir adjacent prisms of said lens, all of said vanes being inclined atthe same angle below the horizontal except for the vanes opposite the Iranged upon a portion of one face thereof, and

havingvertical triangular prisms arranged upon the other portion of saidface of said lens, said aoaaaaa lenshaving horizontal prisms arrangedupon its opposite face, and a screening device arranged in front of saidlens, said screening device comprising a plurality of inclined vanesspaced from each other to the height of their adjacent horizontal prismsof said lens.

4. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having vertical flutesarranged upon a portion of one face thereof, and having verticaltriangular prisms arranged upon the other portion of said face of saidlens, said lens having horizontal prisms arranged upon its oppositeface, and a screening device arranged in front of the lens, saidscreening device comprising a plurality of inclined vanes spaced fromeach other to the height of their adjacent horizontal prisms of saidlens, all of said vanes being inclined at the same angle below thehorizontal except for the vanes opposite the lower third of the lens,said vanes opposite the lower third of the lens being inclined atdifferent angles from each other and from said other mentioned vanes.

5. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged upon one face thereof, and having vertical flutesarranged upon a portion of the other face thereof, and having verticaltriangular prisms arranged upon the remaining portion of saidsecond-mentioned face, and a screening device arranged in front of saidlens, said screening device comprising a plurality of inclined vanesspaced from each other to the height of their adjacent horizontal prismsof said lens.

6. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged upon one face thereof, and having vertical flutesarranged upon a portion of the other face thereof, and having verticaltriangular prisms arranged upon the remaining portion of saidsecond-mentioned face, and a screening device arranged in front of saidlens, said screening device comprising a plurality of inclined vanesspaced from each other to the height of their adjacent horizontal prismsof said lens, all of said vanes being inclined at the same angle belowthe horizontal except for the vanes opposite the lower third of thelens, said vanes opposite the lower third of the lens being inclined atdiflerent angles from each other and from said other mentioned vanes.

7. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged upon one face thereof, said prisms having upper outersurfaces with the same slope exceptfor the lowermost ones, saidlowermost prisms having their upper outer surfaces sloping at agradually increased size down to the last two of said prisms, and saidlast two prisms 5 having upper outer surfaces of the same slope size,and a screening device arranged in front of said lens, said screeningdevice comprising a plurality of inclined vanes spaced from each otherto the height of their adjacent prisms of said lens. 10

8. A non-glare head-lamp comprising 2, casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapeziumprisms arranged urmn one face thereof, said prisms having lower outersurfaces which de- 15 crease in size from the topmost prisms to thecentral prisms, and increase in size from said central prisms to thelowermost prisms, and ascreening device arranged in front of said lens,said screening device comprising a plurality of 0 inclined vanes spacedfrom each other to the height of their adjacent prisms of said lens.

9. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector, a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having horizontal trapezium25 prisms arranged upon one face thereof, said prisms having their upperouter surfaces of the same slope except for the lowermost ones, saidlowermost prisms having upper outer surfaces which gradually increase insize down to the last 30 two, said last two prisms having their upperouter surfaces of the same slope, said prisms having lower outersurfaces which decrease in size from the uppermost prism to the centralprisms, and increase in size from said central prisms to 35 thelowermost prisms, and a screening device arranged in front of said lens,said screening device comprising a plurality of inclined vanes spacedfrom each other to the height of their adjacent prisms of said lens. 4010. A non-glare head-lamp comprising a casing, a reflector. a source oflight mounted within said reflector, a lens having substantiallyhorizontal prisms arranged upon one face thereof, and a screening devicearranged in front of said 5 lens,'said screening, device comprising aplurality of inclined vanes spaced from each other to the height oftheir adjacent prisms of said lens, each prism having a portion of itssurface shaped to direct the reflected rays substantially parallel withsaid vanes, and another portion of its surface shaped to direct otherreflected rays in substantially parallel planes between the inner upperedge and the lower outer edge of adjacent vanes. I

1 PELE, JR.

